No more sandbagging for Wiltshire Council
The good old sandbag is now out of date, and if you need to protect your property from flooding the latest technology is the 'gel-sac'.
In the event of flooding Wiltshire Council may protect the elderly or infirm and commercial property but can't guarantee being able to help individual householders, so those in areas of risk should take precautions themselves.
In order to help communities protect themselves from flood risk, Wiltshire Council is introducing a scheme to supply gel sacs, these are similar to sandbags but inflate when in contact with water. The sacs are filled with a gel that expands when wet, but when dry they are virtually flat. This means they are simple to store and easy to distribute in an emergency. The sacs allow a protective flood barrier to be built quickly to protect doorways and airbricks. When the flood has gone down they can often be emptied, dried and reused.
In some places where there is a known flood risk, the Parish or Town Council may already hold a limited supply of sandbags, and the gel sacs can be used to augment these.
Local communities are encouraged to appoint a local Flood Warden who can co-ordinate their response and be the main contact with the council's duty officers. Those parish and town councils with flood wardens or local flood working groups can seek advice from them on the numbers of gel sacs likely to be required for specific locations.
Parish and Town Councils will be able to:
• Purchase a stock which they can hold in the community for distribution during a flood event or
• Having identified properties that are at risk, or are known to flood, purchase the gel sacs on behalf of the householders.
The gel sacs are available to Parish and Town Councils for £2.50 each.
Contact Sarah Peterson (sarah.peterson@wiltshire.gov.uk 01225 713377) for details.
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The majority of flooding experienced by communities within Wiltshire is attributed to surface water run-off caused by localised heavy bursts of rain. It isn't easy to predict and can happen in a short period of time and you don't have to be near a river to be vulnerable.
In 2007 the British Institute of Insurers said that of the 55,000 instances of flooding reported two thirds were attributed to surface water flooding.
Being flooded is a distressing experience, but if aid arrives quickly the outcome is less bad. With surface water flooding you need a response time of less than 30 minutes, preferably 15 to 20 minutes. Where communities have drawn up a flood plan and have flood wardens in place this can be achievable.
The emergency numbers to report flooding problems in north and west Wiltshire are 0800 232323 in normal working hours and 01722 413834 at other times.